SCRIBNER -- Members of the Scribner-Snyder School Board have a monumental task ahead of them, and school superintendent Rick Kentfield said a special meeting Monday night was the first step toward a possible consolidation.
Scribner-Snyder School Board members met with school board members from Logan View, Dodge and West Point-Beemer school districts Monday night as a feasibility study about a possible merger of the Scribner-Snyder district was outlined.
Omaha education consultant Gary Cooper outlined the study that he developed, addressing facilities and financial impacts of a possible merger.
Kentfield said a consolidation with one of the other three school districts is possible but not set in stone.
“The board wants to look at opportunities for the future with an open mind,” he said. “They don’t want to get caught in a position where they have no choices and told what to do with the district.”
Currently, funding for the Scribner-Snyder school district is being helped by a levy override, which voters approved. The levy override, which allows the district to have additional revenues through slightly higher property taxes than state law allows, ends in 2010.
That may be the time for the district to consolidate with one of the other nearby districts, he said.
The biggest issue facing the school district is the budget ” with 85 percent going to personnel and the remaining 15 percent getting squeezed by the need for more technology to develop students to be ready for life after high school, ever-increasing costs of everything and reduced revenues because of lowering enrollments.
“It’s a balancing act every small district is dealing with right now,” he said. “We’re trying to create educational opportunities for our students and be fiscally responsible. The cost of everything is going up. Schools are different than they were 20 years ago, and technology adds another dimension.”
That financial crunch is causing school districts like Scribner-Snyder to look at all options, he said.
In his presentation, Cooper outlined some areas that the school district would require: Maintaining an elementary school in Scribner, expanding course options for students, operating at or below the state levy limit and continuing to use existing facilities that are in good shape.
Projected enrollment with each of the other school districts still shows possible enrollment declines with the biggest overall decline with Logan View at 18 percent of the 2007-08 enrollment. Projected enrollment combinations with West Point-Beemer showed the smallest possible enrollment decline at 3 percent by 2017.
As for facilities, both Logan View and West Point could accept the Scribner-Snyder students from seventh through 12 grades in 2010 without any additional construction to the schools, Cooper said. West Point is under a major renovation that would allow the added students by the time construction is finished sometime next year.
A consolidation with Dodge would likely require a new high school and a bond issue to pay for the construction, he said.
Consolidating with any of the three districts would also likely cause a reduction in staff, he continued. Consolidating with Dodge would likely cause the fewest layoffs, between five and 10 staff members. Consolidating with West Point would likely cause the most layoffs, up to 16 staff members.
Kentfield said members of the Scribner-Snyder School Board will meet in early September for their regular meeting, but will likely not discuss this feasibility study. Rather, it is likely they could set a date for a retreat to allow them a larger block of time to discuss the options.
Curt Helgenberger, president of the Scribner-Snyder School Board, said he would prefer that any retreat take place in September, but that would depend on the schedules of the other school board members.
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